1 | P a g e
Challenges in a Western Canadian Police Force to the Recruitment and Retention of Police Cadets from Four Visible Minority Groups – South Asian, Chinese, Filipino and Black
Catherine Rigaux, MPA Graduate Student School of Public Administration
University of Victoria February 2018
Supervisor: Dr. Barton Cunningham, Professor
2 | P a g e
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Dr. Barton Cunningham of the University of Victoria for accepting the task of guiding me through this challenging and rewarding process.
A big thank you is also extended to all the participants of the study. You were generous in your time and provided thoughtful and honest answers to interview questions which will, undoubtedly, contribute to this research and benefit the future of policing.
Finally, a generous thanks must go to Astrid Pinan and James MacGregor who graciously dedicated their time and expertise to complete my oral defence committee.
I dedicate this paper to my husband, George and my son, Domenic. Thank you for your ongoing love, support and patience throughout the years of policing and studying. It takes a strong support network along with a lot of humour and resiliency to make it successfully through those often challenging but rewarding times. You gave me all of those things and more and for that I am eternally grateful.
3 | P a g e TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY………...4 1. INTRODUCTION………...7 Overview………...7 2. BACKGROUND………..7 History………..7
3. PRINCIPLES GUIDING THE PROJECT………9
4. PROCEDURE………....10
Systematic Literature Review………...11
Semi-Structured Interviews………..14
5. FINDINGS – SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW………...15
6. FINDINGS – INTERVIEWS………21
7. DISCUSSION……….35
8. OPTIONS TO CONSIDER AND RECOMMENDATION………...41
9. REFERENCES………...46
4 | P a g e
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This paper has been anonymized to protect the identity of the participating agency. Objective
Many Western Canadian police forces have identified a strategic objective to recruit and retain more members from visible minority groups in order to create a response oriented service that acknowledges factors in the external environment that create risks and challenges, such as changing demographics, population increases, and the changing nature of crime and social disorder. The purpose of this project was to analyze and recommend options to assist one of the major Western Canadian policing organizations in addressing challenges related to the recruitment and retention of individuals from four of their largest visible minority groups - South Asians, Chinese, Filipinos and Blacks.
Methodology
The methodology for this project involved two distinct and separate research procedures – first, a systematic literature review detailed in section five (5) and, second, semi-structured interviews detailed in section six (6). The research questions in the semi-structured interviews asked operational police officers of four visible minority groups to explain their perceptions of the organizational culture at their agency, the leadership of their agency, the recruitment process at their agency and the intrinsic and extrinsic motivating factors at their agency contributing to their job motivation and job satisfaction.
This methodology was chosen to provide the most robust information possible in order to assist the participating agency in determining the extent to which their current environment was meeting visible minority expectations or the extent to which they needed to make modifications to better address the factors motivating applicants and officers from the South Asian, Chinese, Filipino and Black minority groups.
Key Findings
Systematic Literature Review
This step of the research disclosed a general consensus that encouraging and promoting diversity in police organizations was a good thing but organizations needed to set diversity goals that were realistic, timely and achievable. The review also identified four categories that impacted visible minority recruitment and retention as follows: organizational culture; leadership; recruitment; and, incentives. Depending on whether these categories, and each component within them, were seen as either positive or negative by the applicant or officer determined whether they acted as motivators or barriers.
In terms of organizational culture, attracting larger number of culturally diversified groups, including visible minorities, into policing was still hindered by issues related to racism, targets, diversity training and policy development.
With leadership, a real or perceived lack of diversity at the senior leadership levels was identified as potentially leading to a reduced interest in a police force and/or a reduced interest in promoting
5 | P a g e
and it was also shown that the number of diverse officers (including visible minority) decreased as the rank increased. There was also an expectation that leaders conducted themselves in an ethical and humble manner and displayed behavior congruent with what they expected from those they led.
Recruitment was broken into the recruiting process itself and recruiting strategies. The recruiting process needed to be understandable, relevant and timely and the standards consistent, fair and transparent. Recruiting strategies included ensuring that families of applicants and officers understood the requirements of policing and getting their “buy-in” as well as using innovative strategies such as simulation based games and hosting special community events.
Incentives for visible minorities included both intrinsic factors and extrinsic factors. The intrinsic factors included respect and autonomy in the workplace, having family support and understanding the pro-social impact of their work in the community. Extrinsic factors included having a support system and mentoring program throughout not just the application phase but also the training and field placement phases, receiving competitive salaries and benefits, being offered education and being given training and promotional opportunities (which included quality of supervision and meaningful interaction through processes such as stay interviews).
Semi-Structured Interviews
There were wide variances in opinions about the organizational culture and leadership at the participating police agency but a general agreement regarding recruiting and incentives. Four key themes emerged, which aligned with the systematic literature review, as follows: organizational culture; leadership; recruitment; and, incentives.
From an organizational culture perspective, all interviewees stated that while the agency was working hard to accept diversity, there were still barriers to recruiting visible minority applicants including an internal police culture where some perceptions of racism still existed, ineffective and/or irrelevant cultural training, conflict due to cultural and generational differences and a senior leadership that was perceived, at times, to be “heavy-handed”.
All interviewees agreed that leadership at some level was important to them but most felt that their divisional leadership mattered the most. Ensuring improved communication between senior leadership, middle management and constables was important as well as having better visibility from the senior leader and their team. Addressing the lack of diversity at the senior ranks was a common theme although not at the expense of competency.
The number one factor for interviewees in recruiting visible minority applicants was that the applicants had the capacity to meet the required standards. The notion of tokenism and the impact it had on the reputation and functioning of their agency was very concerning to them. Many indicated a desire for mentoring and supported the adoption of more innovative strategies by the recruiting unit for identifying top prospects. Interviewees also indicated that they would like to be more involved in the recruitment process.
Interviewees indicated that both intrinsic and extrinsic factors were incentives and of importance to them. Intrinsic factors included autonomy, development, team cohesion and community feedback. Important extrinsic factors were supervision, recognition of family, salary, worklife balance, and other “bonuses” related to work location and referrals. Specifically in terms of
6 | P a g e
supervision, accountability was discussed and many of the interviewees expressed a desire to see both 360 performance reviews and the completion of stay interviews.
Options to Consider and Recommendation
Based on a number of the suggestions detailed in the report, the following options were available to the participating agency moving forward and were presented only to assist them in consideration of their next steps. When analyzing the viability of each option, the agency was advised to take into consideration the following:
• organizational mission, vision, values and goals of the organization – did the option allow the agency to achieve its mission, vision and organizational goals;
• organizational capacity – did the agency have the leadership, money, people and time to implement the option;
• cost benefit – did the potential to gain or save resources (financial, human, IT, time) outweigh the costs;
• viability – did the option create additional barriers for the agency;
• practicality – could the agency realistically achieve the strategic recommendations outlined in one or more of the categories of organizational culture, leadership, recruitment, incentives
Option 1: Status Quo – this option assumed the agency maintained its current operations and accountability. It minimized risk associated with change but maintained what was working well given the current policing climate. It minimized additional financial and human resource output but did not address identified issues related to organizational culture, leadership, recruitment or incentives which could impact the goal of increasing visible minority recruitment.
Option 2: Priority Driven – this option suggested the agency change in one identified area of organizational culture, leadership, recruitment or incentives that would bring the biggest benefit to them given the current policing climate and available resources. This option allowed the agency to focus on one particular group of strategic priorities at a time and sent a message to the membership that it was focussed on positive change and listening to the concerns of its own. Option 3: Proactive/Leadership – this option encouraged the agency to assess all four areas of organizational culture, leadership, recruitment and incentives concurrently and remove the existing barriers in each area in order to advocate for more substantive changes to their policing system. This option would appease some of the operational membership but would require extensive financial, human and time resources. It could also overwhelm the agency given its size and the logistics that would be required to implement the strategies.
Option 2 was recommended with the initial focus on recruitment rather than organizational culture, leadership or incentives. Much discussion occurred in the interviews surrounding the recruitment process and recruitment strategies resulting in several suggestions for improvement. Implementing some or all of the strategic priorities listed above in recruitment could improve the number and quality of visible minority applicants as well as their longevity with the agency.
7 | P a g e
INTRODUCTION Overview
Major Western Canadian police agencies are, like many police services globally, trying to address the impact that an increasingly diverse population is having on their ability to recruit and retain members from visible minority groups. A continually increasing immigrant population reflects the need to have a police force that better represents the demographics of their city. However, given the inherently dangerous and unpredictable nature of police work, there are important considerations to how public safety agencies are creating targeted policies, initiatives and strategies to recruit visible minorities. Police officers must possess certain qualities and characteristics and competencies in order to keep themselves, other police officers and members of the public safe and there are barriers presented to visible minorities which may be impacting their ability to succeed in the recruitment and training phases. It is also well known that the particular culture of a police force influences decisions visible minorities make about whether they perceive that particular organization as a good fit for them.
The fact that these police agencies have made a commitment to increase the diversity of their forces means the above numbers present a challenge in meeting the recruitment and retention targets of visible minorities over the next several years. These targets are required in order to address population growth and other emerging issues which include changing crime dynamics, an increasing complexity of investigations requiring strong cognitive skills, and changing perceptions and attitudes about policing as a profession which have impacted the ability to draw candidates from highly competitive job markets.
The purpose of this project was to research, summarize and report on potential motivators and potential barriers within four major categories – organizational culture, leadership, recruitment and incentives - that visible minorities in a major Western Canadian city were considering when looking at the city’s police force as an organization. This was done by analyzing data from the existing literature and capitalizing on the invaluable experiences of sworn operational police officers from that particular agency.
BACKGROUND History
The percentage of the Canadian population that is comprised of individuals from minority cultures has increased significantly over the past 15 years from just over 5 million (or 16.2% of the population) in 2006 to just over 6.2 million (or 19.1% of the population) in 2011(Stats Canada 2011). Due to a number of global factors related to opportunity, conflict, and mobility, more and more people from other countries are deciding to call Western Canada home; but, these immigrants may also experience a wide variety of issues related to re-settling including language barriers, unemployment, lack of affordable housing, culture shock, violence and discrimination.
As stated by Jain, Singh & Agocs (2008), “in recent years, public-sector organizations have been required to respond to the often contradictory expectations of various segments of this increasingly
8 | P a g e
diverse public” (p. 47). A large part of that “public sector” are public safety organizations including police. Today’s police forces, however, are facing a significant barrier when it comes to providing professional service to many of these minority communities and that barrier is lack of representation on their police forces of members from these groups.
Policing is inherently adversarial but it becomes even more complicated, controversial and divisive in diverse societies where citizens who don’t necessarily understand the Canadian way of life have difficulty adapting and end up challenging authority and order. Many immigrants to Canada come from countries where the police were violent and corrupt and not to be trusted.
This leads to police forces needing to be able to react appropriately to these challenges. However, research conducted by Ben-Porat (2008) indicated that many police officers did not have the requisite skills or knowledge of foreign cultures, religions and national identities to effectively police them. That deficiency may be part of what is impacting the ability to attract and retain members from visible minority groups because the lack of knowledge can lead to bias, prejudice and stereotyping by officers which, in turn, impacts the policing response. The result is either ‘under-policing’ or ‘over-policing’ in these groups where community members suffer from police neglect of their neighborhoods, from an aggressive police approach or, at times, from both (Ben-Porat, 2008). Neither of these approaches are conducive to forging the positive relationships necessary to recruit members of those populations to join police forces.
In order to increase the legitimacy and efficacy of police forces, many forces have come to the realization that they require a larger number of individuals from visible minority groups. Many questions are raised by this concept though, including how to ensure members of these groups meet standards, how to create a culture of tolerance and acceptance within the force and how to prevent them from leaving when they face pressure or are ostracized either from members of the force they just joined and/or from members of their own community.
The goals, challenges and issues facing the participating agency which is the subject of this paper will require significantly more resources over the next few years. In order to reach those targets, they have identified one of their initiatives as developing their capacity through recruitment. So, when we look at recruitment, what are requisite characteristics of effective, modern day police officers?
The modern day police officer requires a specific mix of intellectual, psychological, emotional and physical characteristics to be successful (Capps, L., 2014). The demands placed on officers today require that they possess exceptional communication and problem solving skills. Effective investigators are knowledgeable, creative, patient, persistent, open-minded, humble, empathetic and inquisitive. They have the capacity to absorb training and apply it to their work, they know the law/elements of the offence(s), and they understand and are able to apply various investigative techniques. They exhibit a strong ethical/moral compass and are very good team players in that they can work with a variety of people. Exceptional intelligence is not a requisite trait of an effective investigator but they must be competent. Objectivity, logic, common sense, and being emotionally balanced are important.
There is certainly no lack of effort on the part of western Canadian police agencies to succeed in attracting and recruiting more visible minorities that possess these qualities and part of those
9 | P a g e
efforts are addressed though advisory councils which bring together citizens of diverse cultural or social backgrounds to help guide the police agency in its delivery of services to the community as well as diversity and other support units which align with outreach networks throughout the cities. The research conducted in this project aligned with the participating agency’s strategy of employing an “intelligence based” approach to community relations and resourcing and it provided a valid approach to ensuring that the agency was meeting visible minority recruitment and retention levels in order to meet their significant increase in anticipated resourcing levels over the next five years.
From a public safety perspective, a recruitment and retention framework that encompasses the attitudes, beliefs and values of minority groups will contribute to the overall accountability of the agency in delivering its mission, vision and values to the citizens of its city.
PRINCIPLES GUIDING THE PROJECT
One only needs to read or watch the news to see that the landscape for policing in today’s society is changing dramatically and that discussions are taking place regarding the belief that increasing diversity among police forces is a good thing. At this juncture, it is important to differentiate between the words “diversity” and “visible minority” as this research focussed solely on visible minority. From my personal policing and teaching experiences, diversity includes not only race, but other factors including gender, sexuality, religion and culture. Diversity is a much broader concept than visible minority so it is important to understand that this project took the narrow approach of focussing on only one aspect of diversity.
The conceptual framework of this project was predicated on the fact that the recruitment and retention of visible minorities to police forces is motivated by a wide variety of factors and that those same factors can also apply to retention because they relate to how individuals feel about the work they do (McMurray et al, 2010). An initial review of the literature showed concepts related to organizational culture, leadership, recruitment and incentives (intrinsic/extrinsic motivators). Perceptions that applicants had about organizational culture was an important factor contributing to attraction. Police values and attitudes pervaded many organizations at different levels and created a pressure to conform (McMurray et al, 2010; Murji, K., 2014; Waters, I., Hardy, N., Delgaado, D. & Dahlmann, S., 2007; Ben-Porat, G., 2008 & Cashmore, E., 2002). As discussed by Waters et al (2007), there was a hope that “assimilating” visible minorities into society would lead to them being “absorbed” into a multicultural police force. This suggested an expectation that visible minorities would integrate into the existing police culture and this type of presumption could be very difficult to extinguish. Person-organization fit was an important concept to consider here; that is, how suitable or congruent with a particular organization an individual felt (Cunningham, 2016). The particular culture of police organizations can influence decisions that visible minorities make about whether they perceive that particular organization as a good “fit” for them.
Leadership that truly valued a variety of opinion and ideas was identified as an important concept along with being able to encourage and manage constructive conflict which was accepted as being inevitable within a diverse workforce. Having those leaders who embraced different perspectives
10 | P a g e
and approaches to work was an important factor for applicants (Wilson et al, 2010 and Monk-Turner, E, O’Leary, D., & Sumter, M., 2010).
When being recruited, visible minority police officers were fearful of tokenism which incorporated lower standards and special treatment. This made them feel as though they were being looked upon as a charity case because of their ethnicity (Schmidt et al, 1997, Waters et al 2007, Ben-Porat, 2008 and Rowes & Ross, 2015).
Related to incentives, one of the earliest theories of “motivators” was proposed by Frederick Herzberg (1959) who talked about them in the form of intrinsic factors and extrinsic factors. Herzberg’s theory has been replicated by more recent researchers including Monk-Turner, O’Leary and Sumter (2010) as well as Hackman and Oldham (2010). Intrinsic factors included perceptions of applicants and officers about status, autonomy, self achievement, having a voice (authority/power), community support and family support (Waters et al, 2007 and McMurray et al, 2010). Extrinsic factors included salary, benefits, working conditions, work-life balance and supervision (Schmidt, M & Ryan, A., 1997, Ewjik, 2011, Wilson et al, 2010 and Sanjeev, M. & Surya, A., 2016).
Given the above findings, recruitment and retention of visible minorities adopted for the purposes of this project was based on five guiding principles that could help organizations position themselves in order to capitalize on workforce and/or group differences and provide a foundation for the development of a minority recruitment and retention program as follows:
• An organizational culture should strive to create an environment of respect, trust and transparency free from racism and public pandering;
• Organizational leadership should strive to accept constructive conflict as inevitable within a diverse workforce and embrace different perspectives and approaches to work;
• Recruiters should respect that applicants expect to be hired and evaluated based on their competency, not their ethnicity.
• Visible minority officers place an importance on receiving support from their family and community;
• Autonomy, quality of supervision, strong monetary compensation, opportunity and work-life balance impact job motivation and job satisfaction of visible minority officers. These five principles provided a foundation for the development of a minority recruitment and retention program based on a two-pronged research procedure. The first phase was a systematic literature review of existing research. The second phase was conducting semi-structured interviews with currently serving operational police officers at the participating agency. These are explained in further detail in the following procedure section.
PROCEDURE
While there was a body of research that I initially reviewed which provided some information, much of it was addressing factors that impacted how members of the public felt about police and how they perceived the organizational culture of police. There was very little research that focused on the experiences and opinions of visible minority operational police officers. Of the research
11 | P a g e
that did focus on visible minority officers, very little of it discussed the factors impacting why an individual from a visible minority group considered and then chose policing as a career. Within the sources exploring visible minorities in policing, an even smaller number were dedicated to a Canadian context. Very little was available regarding the attraction, recruitment and retention of visible minorities to Canadian police agencies. Because of these observations and to ensure a comprehensive review was completed, I chose to complete further research to define more precisely the literature in the area through a systematic literature review.
Next I conducted semi-structured interviews with operational police officers at the participating police agency who voluntarily identified themselves as members of one of the four visible minority groups focused on in this project. These interviews were conducted in order to obtain first hand information on how the current organizational culture, leadership, recruitment processes and incentives at the agency may or may not have affected the recruitment and retention of members of visible minority groups to the agency. The interviews were also conducted to determine what was working well for visible minority members in terms of best practices and where opportunities for change may have existed.
Systematic Literature Review
The first phase of the research procedure conducted in this report was a systematic literature review. It detailed existing knowledge related to the guiding principles outlined above and then integrated this knowledge into the questions used in the interview phase of the research.
A qualitative systematic review of existing research typically involves a detailed and comprehensive plan and search strategy derived through deduction, theory and scientific method with the goal of reducing bias by identifying, appraising, and synthesizing all relevant studies on a particular topic (Uman, 2011). The process for reviewing the literature is a consistent, transparent and reproducible set of rules or protocol which results in the collection, review and amalgamation of that information into a useable report (EPPI – Center, 2006). All systematic reviews have certain steps which are followed which ensures that the information collected is as full and illustrative as possible. These steps include:
• setting the scope of review and protocol; • gathering and describing research in the field; • analysing and synthesizing the data; and,
• drawing up recommendations in a written report (EPPI Centre, 2010).
In order to analyze a sample of the existing literature on the recruitment of visible minorities to policing, the above named stages were consolidated into the following four steps:
• searching;
• screening and assessment; • mapping and sampling; and, • synthesis.
Figure 4.1 on the next page maps the systematic literature review process that I undertook in order to provide a visual perspective of the steps involved. This is followed by a detailed explanation of each step.
12 | P a g e
Figure 4.1 – Map of Data Collection Process
In step 1, searching, I looked to identify and collect all empirical full text and peer reviewed existing studies that used the term ‘recruit* and minorit* and police’ or ‘recruit* and minorit* and law enforcement’ to capture literature related to pubic safety organizations and attracting diversity in their workforce. This broad use of terms helped to identify publications where the authors did not consider a particular minority group or public safety organization. In this first stage of the review process, it was necessary to develop the question “how do policing agencies attract visible minorities to the occupation of policing” in order to govern which types of studies were to be included in the review as well as the protocol that was to be implemented to search for potentially relevant items. Based on the review question, the systematic review could be described as either configurative (or interpretive) or aggregative (Gough, D., Oliver, S. & Thomas, J., 2013). In this particular paper, the research reviewed was qualitative in nature which is mainly focussed on developing and exploring theory by “configuring” ways of comprehending facts and what their meaning or merit is to people (Gough et al, 2013). Gough et al (2013) also describe how the Initial Assessment of Literature Database search keywords:
recruit* AND minorit* AND police OR law enforcement (November, 2017)
Note: ONLY full text, empirical and peer reviewed studies were included in the search Web of Science
(WoS) (N=68) EBSCO (N=34)
GALE (N=38) ResearchGate
(N=118)
Primary database of literature N=206
Merging databases – exclusion of duplicates
Secondary database of literature N=136
Tertiary database of literature N=107
Mapping database literature N=62
Full text review N=45
Specific keywords and synonyms search
Application of inclusion criteria to title and abstract
Selection of empirical studies after the year 2000
Step 1 – Searching Step 2 – Screening & Assessment Step 3 – Mapping & Sampling Step 4 - Synthesis Selection of empirical studies on recruiting visible minorities to policing
13 | P a g e
configurative approach to reviews is attentive to meaning and explanation and frequently depends on a small number of detailed cases. They also discuss how differences (or heterogeneity) in studies is preferred as they can provide a more diverse insight and a useful appreciation of the topic rather than a large number of cases that are the same.
Because my review question was exploratory in terms of looking for strategies and what police organizations have done, or are doing, to recruit visible minorities, I completed a configurative systematic review. I defined a number of keywords and search strings that were entered in four electronic databases: Web of Science, EBSCO, GALE and ResearchGate, which are detailed in Appendix 1 attached to this report. I decided not to conduct searches in Google Scholar given that it has identified limitations to perform a systematic review (Boecker, M., Vach, W. & Motschall, E., 2013). Also, my initial searches of 'recruit* AND minorit* AND police’ and ‘recruit AND minorit* and law enforcement’ on scholar.google.ca showed over 20,900 and 18,100 results as of December 2017 respectively. Because of limited time and resources, I conducted more specific searches on the four databases named above. I started with a general search using broad queries (i.e., recruit and minority and police) to get a general overview of the topic. Then I refined the queries including the more specific terms of visible minority, attract, hire, law and law enforcement so that I could make sure I was capturing sensitivity (finding all articles in a topic area) and specificity (finding only relevant articles) (EPPI Center, 2013).
In step 2, screening and assessment, I focused the review further by constricting the scope of the search to only those articles that matched certain criteria. Given the configurative nature of this review I defined inclusion criteria as follows:
• full text publications that could be downloaded for free or from the University of Victoria or Lethbridge College libraries;
• empirical and peer reviewed; • published in the English language; • Westernized democracies;
• Policing and security organizations; • no limitation on date
I used the two stages identified by Gough et al (2013). First, the title and abstract were screened using the above criteria to determine whether the study was likely to be applicable. Second, those articles I felt were applicable were downloaded so I could review the full text and make sure the content and quality would answer the review question. The tool I used to do this is attached as Appendix 2 and, as shown, was mainly focused on the strength of each study itself as well as how applicable it was to my own research question. The form was devised based on the suggestions of Woods et al (2004) when analyzing qualitative research. In the assessment during this step, I screened in only the empirical studies because, from experience, I know these are studies that collect and analyse primary data based on direct observation or experiences.
In step 3, I created more specific criteria to further narrow the selection process and “code” articles. These criteria included variables related to: year of publication; content type (e.g., journal article, e-book, book chapter, conference proceedings, editorial, etc.); source (e.g., name of the journal or book where the item was published); country (based on the authors' institutional affiliation). This
14 | P a g e
mapping process aided me in developing a manageable sample of articles to synthesize into my results given my limitations with time and resources. As Gough et al (2013) stated, this mapping ensured a suitable sample given how some researchers question the acceptability of qualitative systematic reviews (Dixon-Woods et al., 2006). According to Dixon-Woods et al (2006), Gough et al (2013) and EPPI (2006), a researcher is allowed to screen in articles which they instinctively feel are relevant to the study based on the identification of key words or concepts.
This sample included only empirical studies on recruiting visible minorities to policing where the authors focused explicitly on the notion of 'visible minorities' in combination with ‘recruitment and policing' and not, for instance, recruiting women or LQBTQ which form part of the diversity group but are not specifically visible minorities. The selected sample seemed appropriate to present a broad understanding of concepts and strategies that leadership in policing organizations need embrace in order to address the identified need for increasing visible minorities within the ranks of police officers. The reasons for this need are twofold: first, the proportion of visible minorities with the general population is increasing in western democracies and, second, the associated issues of under/over policing and community perceptions have been identified in many jurisdictions (Ben-Porat, 2008).
In step 4, I synthesized my results/evidence by using a thematic analysis which is basically looking for common themes. I did this because when conducting research in a configurative way on qualitative data, it becomes important to be creative and interpretive by constructing either new concepts or theories and/or expanding prevailing explanations based on the evidence found (Gough et al. 2013; EPPI 2009; Dixon-Woods et al., 2005). By doing this, I was looking for repetitive themes or patterns in the literature and then summarizing or synthesizing those under various headings.
Semi-Structured Interviews
The second phase of the research procedure conducted in this report were the semi-structured interviews. An invitation to participate in an interview was extended to:
• all sworn members of the participating agency who identified as East Indian, Chinese, Filipino or Black;
• all individuals who identified as East Indian, Chinese, Filipino or Black that accepted a position as a police officer with the participating agency but then left the force either during or shortly after training
Numerous attempts by the agency’s recruiting unit to identify and locate past serving visible minority members were not successful. While applicants to the agency were initially considered as potential interviewees, they were not included in this research as their onboarding and training period did not coincide with the timeline of the study. As such, an increased number of interviews was undertaken with currently serving operational members. In hindsight, this strategy was positive as it resulted in some very rich data being given by members who had experiences with the agency as a result of their ethnicity but were still employed there and able to talk about the positive incentives that kept them loyal and committed. I, as the interviewer, asked each interviewee a series of questions related to organizational culture at the agency, leadership at the agency, recruitment processes at the agency and incentives at the agency (see Appendix 5).
15 | P a g e
A total of 20 interviews were conducted with participants who had been involved in operational policing for 5 to 22 years, with an average of 14 years. 4 were patrol constables not in a supervisory role, 7 were in plain clothes units not in a supervisory role, 5 were in uniform and in supervisory roles and 4 were in plain clothes supervisory roles. All interviewees were currently serving regular sworn officers with the agency. The ethnic breakdown was as follows:
• 12 interviewees were of Asian descent • 4 interviewees were of Black descent • 2 interviewees were of Filipino descent • 2 interviewees were of East Indian descent
The interviews were semi-structured which meant that a number of open ended questions were asked of the interviewees. The open ended nature allowed for interpretation by the interviewee without forcing them into a biased or yes/no response. It also provided room for discussion as well as the opportunity to “drill down” on answers of particular interest to the interviewer. All interviews were conducted between June 23, 2017 and July 24, 2017. 15 interviews were conducted face to face and 5 were conducted via phone. Each interview lasted between 75 to 105 minutes depending on the level of discussion and time availability of the interviewee.
FINDINGS – SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW
As a general beginning statement regarding the systematic literature review, Gough et al (2013) described how systematic reviews are becoming more popular as a useful tool for conducting literature reviews as they reduce bias, identify all the relevant research, and force researchers to write reports that are accountable. They allow us to see not just what is known but also what is not known in a wide range of relevant social policy areas including policing. That being said, some do not see how a systematic review of qualitative research is of value in that they do not appreciate the skill and creativity required and the potential that the reviews have for identifying new avenues of investigation (Gough et al, 2013). This review offered resources in terms of how visible minorities viewed certain factors as relevant to a career in policing. However, to date, there is a lack of systematic and structured studies that integrate the research done on the topic of recruiting visible minorities. Specifically, there were noticeable gaps in terms of knowledge related to Canadian visible minority police officers. The inclusive character of this method of review was particularly relevant for this research due to the fact that visible minorities are but a small component of the overall concept of diversity that needs attention given they are one of the fastest growing demographics in Canada (Stats Canada, 2013).
An obvious theme that ran through the literature examined the principle of visible minority recruitment in general. There was a general perception that visible minority targets were not achievable and that recruitment policies related to visible minority targets were to appease the public and maintain an air of political correctness. There was the “formal” or public organizational line that visible minority targets were important and being addressed and then there was the internal organizational attitude that the targets could not be met without reducing standards. This generated discussion in some of the research about the potential for “reverse discrimination” or “white backlash” among officers as well as supervisory and officer safety issues (Rowe & Ross, 2015; Murji, K., 2014; Waters et al, 2007).
16 | P a g e
That being said, this systematic literature review disclosed a general consensus that encouraging and promoting diversity in police organizations was a good thing but organizations needed to be mindful of setting diversity goals that were realistic, timely and achievable. I identified four categories that impacted visible minority recruitment and retention as follows:
• organizational culture; • leadership;
• recruitment; • incentives
The categories and the specific findings related to each one are described more fully in separate paragraphs below.
Organizational Culture
Organizational culture incorporated organizational function, bureaucracy, fairness, openness and transparency (Wilson, J., Dalton, E., Scheer, C., & Grammich, C., 2010). Having some diversity in policing was seen as an important goal to create a more effective, flexible and responsive service (McMurray, A. Karim and G. Fisher, 2010) and included in the concept of diversity was race and country of origin which included visible minorities (McMurray et al, 2010). However, it appeared that despite this well intentioned objective, attracting larger number of culturally diversified groups, including visible minorities, into policing was still hindered by issues related to:
• racism; • targets;
• diversity training; • policy development.
Racism. To begin with, visible minority police officers continued to experience racism within their organizations and this racism potentially existed from the most junior probationary member right up to senior levels of leadership. It existed because of a police culture that formed from police values and attitudes and it pervaded many organizations at different levels and created a pressure to conform (McMurray et al, 2010; Murji, K., 2014; Waters, I., Hardy, N., Delgaado, D. & Dahlmann, S., 2007; Ben-Porat, G., 2008 & Cashmore, E., 2002). As discussed by Waters et al (2007), there was a hope that “assimilating” visible minorities into society would lead to them being “absorbed” into a multicultural police force. This suggested an expectation that visible minorities would integrate into the existing police culture and this type of presumption was seen as potentially very difficult to extinguish.
Targets. Some research indicated that targets were not only unrealistic and unachievable but were also created to placate the public and create an image of political correctness, fairness and transparency within the organization (Murji, 2014; Rowe, M. & Ross, J., 2015 and Cashmore, 2002). This manoeuvering created concerns among existing visible minority officers regarding the possible motivations of incoming officers – basically, “time servers” looking for a pension (Murji, 2014 and Cashmore, 2002). As discussed by Murji (2014), a police officer’s career spanned decades and to expect a high enough rate of turnover to meet ever increasing diversity
17 | P a g e
targets was simply not achievable unless certain hiring phases excluded Caucasian applicants leading to reverse discrimination or white backlash.
Diversity/Cultural Awareness Training. From a cultural awareness training perspective, the research showed conflicting results. Some research indicated that this training could be effective but tempered that with a caveat that it needed to be in conjunction with “on the job” learning (McMurray et al, 2010; Ben-Porat, 2008). Hall (1976) explained that “understanding the reality of covert culture and accepting it on a gut level comes neither quickly nor easily; it must be lived” (p. 58). Cashmore (2002) stated that diversity training had little to no value and suggested that it be replaced by what he called “beneficial policing” which looked to personal experience as the guiding tool rather than classroom lectures or forced training (p. 340). Overall, diversity training was often looked at from a rather cynical perspective that, just like visible minority targets, it was being done to both appease the public and to make it look as though the organization was serious about creating a respectful and transparent workplace for diverse officers.
Policy Development. Having an organizational culture that involved visible minority groups in policy making and allowing them some oversight of how police worked in their community through Community Police Liaison Committees was seen as very important (Ben-Porat, 2008, Wilson et al, 2010).
In summary, research indicated that in order to have an appealing organizational culture, police forces needed to identify and address any systemic racism that was occurring, adjust their visible minority targets to make them achievable, assess if they would continue formal diversity/cultural awareness training or move to a more informal beneficial style of learning and ensure meaningful involvement by the visible minority communities in policy development and policing strategies that affect them.
Leadership
The research on how leadership impacts visible minority police officers was minimal. The research that did exist indicated that a real or perceived lack of diversity at the senior leadership levels could lead to a reduced interest in a police force and/or a reduced interest in promoting. Ewjik (2011) discussed how the number of diverse officers (including visible minority) decreased as the rank increased.
Another concept that was generated by the research showed that, in general, leaders needed to have better cultural competency, be non-egotistical, promote the greater good and have a strong ethical compass. As discussed by Wilson et al (2010), even a perception by police officers that their leadership was behaving in an unjust or unproductive manner could lead to an increase in attrition; “departments should focus on improving management style and communication as well as provide training for managers on key topics” (p. 60).
In summary, leadership appeared to impact retention more so than attraction. It was based on perceptions of sincerity in leadership efforts to promote diversity as well as leadership efforts to foster open, transparent, honest and frequent communication between ranks.
18 | P a g e Recruitment
The category of recruitment was comprised of two sub-themes: • the recruitment process itself;
• recruitment strategies
Recruitment Process. The recruitment process itself was seen as a barrier to visible minorities as it was difficult to understand and long (McMurray et al, 2010 and Waters et al, 2007). An internal perception of not possessing the requisite competencies was a big roadblock that potential applicants faced, in particular their ability to speak English at the necessary level. This led to a belief that there was no organizational fit for them (Yan, M., Lauer, S., & Jhangiani, S., 2010; Basran, G., & Li, Z., 2012 and Schmit, M. & Ryan, A., 1997).
Adding to this issue of not meeting competencies was the fact that currently serving visible minority members admitted that they would not feel comfortable working with a visible minority member who was either incompetent, not confident or both because it created officer safety and supervisory issues (McMurray et al, 2010).
If testing and hiring practices were not seen as fair and transparent to visible minorities, a barrier existed. They did not want any change in standards or favoritism in the process which would be interpreted as tokenism (Schmit et al, 1997; Waters et al, 2007; Ben-Porat, 2008 and Rowe & Ross, 2015). This led to a concern that they would be isolated from both their colleagues and the public and have reduced or unequal opportunities once working as a member (Waters et al, 2007). Finally, police organizations needed to be mindful of “gatekeepers” who could influence young people at the beginning of their careers. Individuals like career advisors or community elders were seen as being able to significantly impact decision making at that level and it was seen as imperative that any police organization foster good relationships with those individuals. Having that positive relationship was believed to facilitate open, honest and fair communication between the advisor/community member, the police force and the potential visible minority applicant (Waters et al, 2007).
Recruitment Strategies. In terms of specific recruiting strategies, there were numerous themes that emerged throughout the literature review. To begin with, advertising in native languages in local news medium was seen as a suitable and proactive way to promote policing as a career and bridge the gap between officers and members of visible minority communities (McMurray et al, 2010). Educating and engaging family members and parents was regarded as essential to the recruitment process and the dynamics of this theme were actually quite complicated. Visible minority officers (or applicants) expressed the importance of close familial ties, so if policing was viewed negatively by family members it was an important barrier for them to overcome (Schmit and Ryan, 1997, Waters et al, 2007, Ben-Porat, 2008, L. Cheng, M. Spaling & X. Song, 2014). Many of their parents (or even themselves) came from countries where the police were corrupt, violent and not to be trusted. Policing was not generally perceived as a career of choice with a professional status for visible minorities because of contrary views of the police in their country of origin (McMurray et al, 2010; Ben-Porat, 2008 and Waters et al, 2007). This created cognitive dissonance in these individuals where they feared they would be mocked, criticized or, even worse, shunned. Another
19 | P a g e
important factor which impacted how policing was viewed by visible minority families was the portrayal of police within the media; much of it being negative in nature (Waters et al, 2007). To overcome this apprehension and negative perception, family members needed to be involved in the process and shown the professionalism of policing. Recruiters needed to emphasize the moral righteousness of the job – protecting society and doing good (Waters et al, 2007, Yan et al, 2010). Several researchers emphasized how referral programs giving money or extended vacation time to those officers who signed up new recruits may improve the number of visible minority applicants. Rowe & Ross (2015) described American campaigns which used these techniques after a series of high profile and contentious occurrences involving police and visible minority community members. Wilson et al (2010) talked about the necessity of building these employee referral networks because it emphasized a “human” aspect which tempered the depersonalized feature of the online processes. Supporting this concept of referral networks, there was research indicating that police organizations needed to target more specifically only those applicants with an interest in the police using minorities themselves as ambassadors and mentors/coaches through both the application and hiring process (Waters et al, 2007, Rowe & Ross, 2015 p. 30, Cashmore 2002). In summary, the recruiting process needed to be understandable, relevant and timely so visible minorities could navigate through it with realistic expectations. Consistent standards were imperative along with hiring and training practices that were fair and transparent so that visible minority members were not held to a double standard by other officers. Ensuring that families understood the requirements of policing and getting their “buy-in” was essential to removing the stigma that was often attached to the occupation because of experiences in their home country. Finally, using innovative strategies and hosting community events at division stations could create an energy and enthusiasm for potential visible minority applicants.
Incentives
Incentives can vary from person to person. Life experience shows us that what one person finds appealing may not be the same for another person. In this systematic literature review, extrinsic and intrinsic factors were identified as incentives.
Extrinsic Factors. For visible minority applicants, an ongoing internal mechanism or infrastructure (mentoring) needed to be in place to support visible minority recruits beyond field training (Wilson et al, 2010). Extending this, further, McMurray et al (2010) discussed the advantage of this type of ongoing support. For example, successful completion of a capacity building program during the probationary period for those new recruits lacking skills, especially in English, was seen as a supportive practice enhancing confidence and character.
Waters et al (2007) described the benefits of a PCSO program (Police Community Support Officer) as a training incentive to attract visible minority members and get them into the service, even if at a reduced capacity. These individuals were uniformed and “deployed on the streets to bolster visibility, to help reassure the community and to act as the ‘eyes and ears’ of the police” (p. 196). The inherent drawback was that they did have limited powers compared to regular officers and were potentially destined to remain at lower positions.
Several researchers also found that visible minority members did not want to police their own communities (Ben-Porat, 2008, Yan et al, 2010, McMurray et al, 2010). It was important for
20 | P a g e
visible minority members to be treated as normal officers and not distinguished from their coworkers because of the colour of their skin. Placing these officers in specific roles or units based on their background created an element of discomfort and expectation that could affect retention (McMurray et al, 2010). As discussed by Ben-Porat (2008), this concept was also important to the visible minority communities themselves where knowing that the force was diverse was more important than having “one of their own” policing their streets.
Accelerated promotion schemes or fast tracking was a concept discussed by Cashmore (2002). This accelerated action ensured that a visible minority member entered the force at a higher level than a non visible minority and was given special training opportunities to promote and move up the ladder more quickly. This type of incentive needed to be managed carefully as it could quickly turn into a barrier if misunderstood by other members of the organization (Waters et al, 2007). Intrinsic Factors. Many applicants looked to the public perception, transparency, quality of team members, and training/developmental opportunities they would receive when considering an organization. According to Ewjik (2011) and Wilson et al (2010), supervision and the quality of relationships with co-workers could have a major impact on whether an organization was seen as a healthy environment to work in. Particularly, officers felt that 360 reviews were necessary for meritorious and transparent moves within the organization (lateral or promotional). They also felt that having respectful connections with other officers within the unit contributed to member well being and satisfaction. Ben-Porat (2008), Foley et al (2007) and Wilson et al (2010) documented the importance of being able to have meaningful advancement and training opportunities that matched the career path or learning plan of the member.
In addition, they determined that having autonomy to work and make decisions independently (within reason) was a crucial factor impacting productivity and happiness. Not being micromanaged was seen as a sign of trust and respect. While conflict was seen as healthy in an organization as long as it was constructive in nature, when it did arise a transparent complaints and resolution process improved the outcome of the dispute (Waters et al, 2007, Ben-Porat, 2008). More meaningful community/police interaction was an important incentive (Waters et al, 2007). Adam Grant (2008) talked about the pro-social impact of one’s work. In policing, a particularly adversarial environment, this was very important. Officers liked to hear that they were doing a good job and were appreciated for what they did. For many visible minorities, communities were supportive (McMurray et al p. 2010). However, that incentive disappeared when poor quality of service was provided. This was important because insensitivity or rudeness towards a visible minority group could jeopardize recruiting (Waters et al, 2007, Ben-Porat, 2008). Closely tied to this were the concepts of under and over policing also talked about by Ben-Porat (2008) wherein visible minority communities either received no attention or too much attention by officers. In summary, the incentives for visible minorities included both intrinsic factors and extrinsic factors. The intrinsic factors included respect and autonomy in the workplace - including stay interviews, having family support and understanding the pro-social impact of their work in the community. Extrinsic factors included having a support system and mentoring program throughout the application, training and field placement phases, training and promotional opportunities and accelerated promotion schemes.
21 | P a g e
FINDINGS – SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS
All interviewees had meaningful experiences to share and four key themes emerged, which aligned with the systematic literature review, as follows:
• organizational culture; • leadership;
• recruitment; • incentives.
As a general comment, there were variances in opinions about the organizational culture and leadership at the participating agency but more consensus regarding recruitment and incentives. The findings from the interviews are presented below and were written in such a way as to ensure the confidentiality of interviewees and allow for key concepts and perspectives to be identified under each thematic area. At the end of the interview each participant was allowed an opportunity to provide any additional comments they wished. Each theme is presented in its own subsection below and is comprised of an overview of general perceptions followed by a table with subthemes. There is then an explanation of each subtheme and applicable quotes from interviewees. A summary completes each subsection reiterating the main points presented. When identifying the numbers of interviewees that responded a particular way, the following legend will be used:
• “majority” equals eight or more respondents • “some” equals four to seven
• “few” equals one to three Organizational Culture
The majority of members defined the term organizational culture as the values and beliefs of the agency which determined what was acceptable and non-acceptable behavior. Embedded in this definition were comments about how organizational culture also included the concepts of employee engagement and public perception. Interviewees felt that their agency was a good police force to work for but were honest in stating that several issues existed surrounding the “unofficial” acceptance of diversity, specifically visible minorities, as well as diversity/cultural awareness training and discipline of the membership. Four (4) main themes emerged about organizational culture during the interviews.
Table 6.1 – Four (4) Main Themes from Interviews Related to Organizational Culture Theme 1 – The way police culture shapes diversity. There was an improvement in the “official” stance of accepting diversity at the organization but a “police culture” still existed depending on the division or unit the member was assigned to.
Theme 2 – Challenging the usefulness of cultural awareness training. Cultural awareness was heavily focused on Aboriginal training and had varying degrees of value. It was also seen by visible minority members as an organizational reaction to appease the public
22 | P a g e
Theme 3 – The politics of discipline. There was a perception of politicization and public appeasement and, at times, heavy handedness when dealing with the discipline of members. Theme 4 – Promoting constructive conflict between members. Cultural and generational differences needed to be addressed to better address conflict between members
Table 6.1 reviews four themes that described the organizational culture at the participating agency. These themes pointed to the way the police culture shaped attitudes towards diversity (specifically visible minorities), the varying value of cultural awareness training, the politics of discipline and promoting constructive conflict between members.
Theme 1 – The way police culture shapes diversity. All interviewees believed that the culture at their agency was improving in terms of accepting diversity. Despite this positive trend, the majority agreed that, while the organization was making a good effort to attract and recruit diversity, the closer one was to working at the street level (patrol), the more at risk the member was for developing an adverse attitude towards “diversity” and other cultures. Particularly at the patrol level, the “police culture” of making inappropriate jokes and having to develop a thick skin still existed. For example,
“its (organization’s) official stance is accepting of diversity but at the grassroots level the acceptance doesn’t happen”
“when I joined my last watch they were all white and said ‘you are messing our bright and white reputation”
“the police culture shapes how we think and how we act so if we don’t embrace diversity, then that is how we are going to act”.
A majority stated that this organizational culture would not impact their decision to apply to the agency. When someone applied to a police force, they did not really “know” the organizational culture. The more important factor influencing their decision to apply was whether they saw the agency as a progressive service openly encouraging and accepting of visible minorities.
The majority of members also stated that the police culture was not impacting their decision to stay at the organization either. There were 3 common reasons given for this. First, they were satisfied with the work they were doing, second they were too vested in the career to leave and, third, they wanted to be able to effect change. Comments which reflected this included:
“the way I see it – you can’t sit on the sidelines bitching about it. The only way you can deal with it is to get in there in and try to change things”
“if I felt there was an issue I would like to be in a position to influence that culture and have an impact that way.”
Theme 2 – Challenging the usefulness of cultural awareness training. A majority of interviewees had taken Aboriginal training but few felt it had any value and the majority felt it was forced on them. Interviewees felt that it would be much more impactful if it were to happen naturally and organically and be relevant to the area they were working in. Some interviewees felt presenters were unprofessional and that the agency was only conducting the training to appease the public
23 | P a g e
and bow to political pressure. Respondents questioned why there was not training for other cultures including Chinese, East Indian, groups from Africa and Filipino.
“it almost seemed like it was something to do to say that they have done it…it is very forced and people resent it”
“what you learn from cultures comes from your dealings with them, lecturing at me has no impact……it has to come from your everyday experiences and your personal values”
Theme 3 – The politics of discipline. A majority felt that the organizational culture had become too reactive to public opinion and political pressure. They felt that they were not being supported by senior leadership, especially when public complaints were made. Some commented how this created “fear” about making any type of mistake and impacted morale. This finding was not specific to any type of cultural or ethnic behavior but rather a finding that applied regardless of race.
“they are willing to bend over backwards to please the public perception”
“we are not going to do or say anything…….you can’t push the envelope, you have to be safe” “guys are scared to think outside the box or be creative”
“the public is dictating and when you let that happen and try to fix it, it is almost impossible”. Theme 4 – Promoting constructive conflict between members. A majority of the more senior interviewees commented that members needed to learn how to better communicate with each other instead of gossiping and making complaints. Interviewees questioned whether that inability to address “conflict” with co-workers was a result of the younger generation, their culture/ethnicity or a combination of both.
“we need to develop understanding of diversity and transparency by educating members on how to talk to each other rather than making formal complaints.”
To summarize organizational culture, all interviewees stated that they would be remaining at the agency for reasons other than the organizational culture. They felt that there was a definite “official” stance within the organization of accepting diversity but there were still issues seen as barriers to recruiting visible minority applicants. They included an internal police culture where some perceptions of racism still existed, ineffective and/or irrelevant cultural training, conflict due to cultural and generational differences and a senior leadership that was perceived to be heavy handed at times which was contributing to a sense of fear among members, particularly those in patrol.
Leadership
All interviewees felt that leadership was closely tied to organizational culture. They identified characteristics that they felt were important in their leaders including but not limited to: being competent, leading by example, providing clear expectations, being a good communicator/listener, being ethical and encouraging change through diverse opinions and ideas. These qualities were indicative of both “transformational” and “servant” types of leadership which empower individuals
24 | P a g e
to challenge themselves beyond what they thought they were capable of while also making decisions and commitments based on the needs of others (Spahr, P., 2015). These leaders show compassion, know the strengths and weaknesses of their team, provide constructive feedback, make difficult decisions and accept responsibility. They explain the organizational message, do not micromanage and exhibit no ego. A majority of interviewees described some disconnect with the senior leadership including the Chief and Deputy Chief but felt that the divisional leadership was, overall, strong. They also confirmed that the existing lack of diversity at the top levels was noticeable. Three (3) main themes emerged about leadership during the interviews.
Table 6.2 – Three (3) Main Themes from Interviews Related to Leadership
Theme 1 – Visibility and communication. The Chief was not as visible to the membership as they would like and the communication between the Chief, middle management and constables needed to improve. Overall, however, the divisional leadership was strong
Theme 2 – Promoting diversity in the senior ranks. There was a noticeable lack of diversity in the upper ranks of leadership at the agency
Theme 3 – Accepting posting challenges. The leadership was respectful of posting accommodations for visible minority members
Table 6.2 reviews three themes that described the leadership at the participating organization. These themes pointed to the visibility and communication of senior leadership, promoting diversity in the senior ranks and accepting posting challenges of visible minority members.
Theme 1 – Visibility and communication of senior leadership. A majority of respondents felt that there was a disconnect between the Chief and the membership. They rarely saw the Chief or deputy chief at their patrol briefings and felt that they often did not get suitable explanations as to why a decision had been made by the Chief. They felt that senior leadership was “out of touch” with the street level members and how they performed their work because the complexity of policing had changed due to diverse populations, sophisticated criminality, social media and increased public scrutiny. Combining the perceived lack of communication with a perception of unawareness left many visible minority members feeling disengaged from the top leadership. There was a more positive response for divisional leadership including the Superintendents and Inspectors.
“our leaders forget where they were, where they came from”
“when was the last time someone higher up threw on plain clothes and went out for a night or two?”
“They have to remember that when they were dealing with things on the street 20 years ago, it is so different now”
“when you don’t see the chief enough and there are all these things happening and you are not getting the messages from your own supervisors then you come up with our own conclusions. The explanation of why doesn’t happen enough”
